Ian Hartitz and Dwain McFarland take turns ranking their favorite fantasy football formats.

ust like your children: All fantasy football leagues are awesome, but some are objectively cooler than others.

Accordingly, today Dwain McFarland and Ian Hartitz rank seven different types of fantasy formats to decide what the superior form of fantasy is once and for all.

As always: It’s a great day to be great.

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Redraft

• Dwain: 1
• Ian: 1

Dwain: Redraft leagues are the most common form of fantasy football, which is the format that first drew me into the game. So yeah, there is a bit of nostalgia going on here, but I also love to play in leagues beyond those just with my friends. 

About 70 to 80% of my annual fantasy football bankroll is allocated to mid- to high-stakes redraft leagues. That means this format also consumes 80% of my fantasy football brain, so how could I rank it as anything other than No. 1!?!?

Still, this is a great time to say that league rules go a long way toward selecting which redraft leagues I want to play in. In fact, these are the things I care about even more than the actual league type:

• Free agent acquisition budget (FAAB): This is a must! Everyone starts with an imaginary budget of $1,000 and gets to use it to bid on free agents accordingly. Why reward the worst drafters in your league with the top waiver wire claims!?!? That is insanity!
• More starters and deeper benches: The best way to extend an edge over your leaguemates is with more starters and deeper benches. My favorite league setup is the tri-flex format. You start 1 QB, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, 1 TE, 3 Flex (one of which can be another QB), and have 20 total roster spots.
• Scoring rules that level the playing field: Tight end premium scoring (PPR but 1.5 points per reception for TEs) is my favorite because it pushes tight end scoring closer to the WRs and RBs, which opens up additional roster-construction options. Oh, you missed out on the elite RBs and WRs because you are picking 12th—Can I interest you in Brock Bowers or Trey McBride?

Ian: Sometimes you just have to respect the classics. I would guess the HEAVY majority of fantasy footballers got their start in a traditional redraft format, and it’s likely what caused you to fall in love with the game in the first place. There’s just nothing quite like the five-month ride of drafting your squad, outmaneuvering friends and/or coworkers on the waiver wire, and eventually cashing in on championship glory … WHILE TALKING A BUNCH OF SHIT ALONG THE WAY.

While I really wish the government would step in and ban kickers from redraft fantasy leagues, my only real annoyance with them would be the amount of time it takes to try to manage 20 or so squads every season. Is this absolutely my fault for continuously joining 20 redraft leagues every year? Yes. Will I stop doing this? No. (Sorry, Mrs. Hartitz.)

Best Ball

• Dwain: 2
• Ian: 3

Dwain: While becoming profitable in large-field tournaments in best ball requires a lot of luck, I love drafting, and the proliferation of the format allows me to draft anytime. Whether I am headed out for a walk or getting ready for bed, I can squeeze in a best ball draft thanks to lobbies that fill uber fast.

Best ball is also layered with different strategy intricacies like team stacking and Week 17 correlation, which exercises different muscles in your fantasy brain. Last season, I drafted 100s of best ball teams, and even got one finalist team through to Week 17 in Best Ball Mania!

Ian: I love best ball because the best part of fantasy is drafting, which is literally all you have to do in best ball land!

It’s also helped me become a healthier and more fit person thanks to the reality that one of the greatest life hacks of exercising is simultaneously doing best ball drafts. Of the 60 or so best ball drafts I’ve done this offseason so far, I would guess 90% have been while walking up an incline on the treadmill at the gym. Literally just enough work to take your mind away from that voice in your head that hates every second of extra physical exertion. Thank you, best ball.

The thing keeping Best Ball out of my top two is, unlike Dwain, I get annoyed about discussions about +0.01% EV optimizations surrounding Week 17 playoff matchups and stacking correlations. Whatever happened to just talking ball? I thought this was America!

Either way: Best Ball remains an awesome way to draft all year long while not saddling yourself with too many squads to manage during football season.

Guillotine Leagues

• Dwain: 3
• Ian: 2

Dwain: Last year was my first time playing in Guillotine Leagues^TM, and I was fortunate enough to take first place. While the winning part was fun, the Guillotine format is unlike any other in a very distinct way: each week, the worst team gets chopped, and all of their players enter the free agent pool for FAAB bidding.

That means, rather than bidding on a third-string running back who might get an RB2 workload due to an injury to the starter, you are bidding on Saquon Barkley. That alone is an exhilarating experience, but what amplifies it is deciding how to strategically allocate your FAAB based on the strength of your team. Blowing all of your FAAB on one great player isn't going to get you to the season's final week—but playing too safe will get your team chopped early.

Of course, the other beauty of Guillotine Leagues is that you can start a new one any time! Your team got cut in Week 3? Start a new league in Week 4!

Guillotine Leagues are the No. 1 climber in my force ranks.

Ian: Have you guys heard Dwain won a Guillotine League last year? Yeah? OK, just making sure.

Anyway: I’ve only done Guillotine Leagues for one year and it’s already my second-favorite form of fantasy football for four key reasons:

• The drafts are DEEP. 180 players are picked in traditional 12-team leagues that have 15-round drafts, but in Guillotine formats we start with 18 squads, so we’re talking about a player pool 1.5x as big as normal. Sleepers GALORE.
• Every week matters. It’s basically college football pre-playoff era: If you lose a game, sucks to suck, your season is over. This results in some wild Monday night sweats, as well as more endorphins from a random Week 3 win than usual because, hell yeah, you survived to play another week! 
• The waiver wire is electric. Redraft leagues will unironically be highlighting things like “Brenton Strange” and “Will Shipley” by Week 3 this year. Meanwhile, Guillotine Leagues will have guys like Christian McCaffrey and CeeDee Lamb available for bidding wars.
• When you lose, you’re done. Managing a shitty fantasy team across the finish line is tough work. Staring down that bad record and injury-riddled squad with no playoff chances in Week 13 is no fun. Neither is losing your Guillotine league, but hey, at least you’re done! Season is over. Better luck next year, and no more time needed.

How many Guillotine Leagues will I enter this year? Five? 10? 20? I honestly am not prepared to say no to an opportunity.

Dynasty

• Dwain: 4
• Ian: 5

Dwain: If I could only play in one league, dynasty might rank No. 1 on this list. Prospect research is one of the things I love most about my job, which is why I invented the Rookie Super Model. No other format depends more on prospect research than dynasty leagues, which instantly makes it a format I love. The two longest-running leagues I play in are dynasty leagues.

Ultimately, dynasty leagues landed at No. 4 on the list because I only play in two, whereas I play in 15 to 25 redraft leagues and 100s of best ball leagues each season. But dynasty leagues are the closest approximation to running your own NFL franchise, which brings a ton of bang for your buck!

Ian: Dynasty is awesome because growing with the same team for years on end creates an attachment that isn’t quite replicated in other formats. Of course, sometimes that attachment is good thanks to your juggernaut squad … and other times it kinda sucks because, you know, you have a shitty dynasty team.

Either way: The dynasty trade streets are always a fun time—who needs this future first when I KNOW I can just get my guy?!—and building a contender over the course of YEARS is awfully rewarding despite the obvious time commitment.

DFS

• Dwain: 5
• Ian: 7

Dwain: Daily fantasy sports allow us to get that single-game or single-Sunday sweat, without any strings attached to our traditional leagues. Botched your fantasy league draft? Well, DFS is a great way to acknowledge our wrong player takes and start anew. 

DFS adds another layer of strategy—to win big contests, we must recognize leverage, and embrace variance—lessons we can carry over to other formats. To win a large-field contest, we must have some low-rostership players and fade some high-rostership players to have a shot at lapping the field to earn a shot at the top-level prizes.

Ian: Daily fantasy is awesome, because all types of fantasy are awesome. That said, I’ve struggled to get too invested in recent years because:

1. I almost always have a Sunday morning show that I have to prepare for/execute. 
2. I enjoy my Saturday college football time and tailgate shenanigans too much to grind DFS lineups.

Maybe this will be the year I better manage time to get back into this exhilarating one-week season format. After all, rule #76: No excuses, play like a champion.

Keeper

• Dwain: 6
• Ian: 6

Dwain: I don't play in any keeper leagues anymore, but they still have a place in my heart because they are a hybrid between redraft and dynasty leagues. While you don't get to completely turn the page from last season, like in redraft, you aren't entirely tied to the same players as in dynasty formats.

Ian: A really fun way to spice up traditional redraft leagues is to add a keeper or two. You can add in rules that prohibit keeping players from the top three rounds, limit them to one year, or even subtract a round from the previous ADP in an attempt to make things more fair. But yeah: Cool way to add an extra element of strategy into what is otherwise a one-season league, and you’re guaranteed to wind up in a situation where you should probably cut Player X in Week 10 … but dammit think about the potential keeper value!

Auction

• Dwain: 7
• Ian: 4

Dwain: I feel bad ranking auctions last in my power ranks, but I don't have any active auction leagues. Historically, I have enjoyed playing in them because they level the draft playing field. Rather than depending on drawing a random number for draft order, you can allocate your resources as you see fit to construct your roster. 

Do you want to spend 60% of your dollars on an elite RB and an elite WR? Go for it. Would you rather play the value game and target underpriced players? Go for it. Do you want to drive up the bidding price on players? Go for it. Do you want to do all of these things? Then auction leagues are for you!

Ian: Auction leagues are awesome because YOU, a scholar, can get any player you want. You can take your “but my draft spot sucked!” complaints and shove ‘em where the sun don’t shine: If you want your guy, pay up and go get him!

That said: My goodness are auction drafts a drain. Going through 180-plus nominations typically takes three-plus hours, BUT they can still be really fun if you have the time and can get everyone together in real life. Pro tip: Hire an auctioneer, you won’t regret it.

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